The 2019 Brian Chambers award

Information about the entrants and winners in 2019.

In 2019 the award attracted another excellent selection of varied and high quality entries. Entries were received from Argentina, Australia, Denmark, Germany, India, Israel, Italy, Morocco, New Zealand, Nigeria, Pakistan, Spain, and the UK. Overall, researchers from 28 countries have now entered the award. It was again pleasing that several of the finalists were able to come to the conference.

The judges concluded that the research that justified winning the first prize of £1,000 was by Chandnee Ramkissoon, for a research project being run jointly by  the universities of Nottingham, UK, and Adelaide, Australia. Her research is seeking to optimise the process of applying Se fertilisers to staple crops to biofortify them, by investigating whether Se fertiliser application timing affects crop Se uptake. It determined whether the rate of absorption and translocation of applied Se to the rest of the plants varied with time and fertiliser formulation. It showed that the timing of application and formulation of Se fertilisers are key to improving its uptake into staple crops

A short interview with Chandnee about her research has been recorded. To hear it, click on the small white ‘play’ triangle in the middle of the new screen that will appear.

Of the two 2019 Runners up, Cheah Zhong Xiang, of the University of Queensland, Australia, is exploring the effectiveness of fertilisers to deliver high kernel Zn concentration and content for human health and nutrition. He examined the response of kernel and whole plant Zn status to soil and foliar Zn application in commercial and experimental sweetcorn varieties, when grown in soil with adequate versus deficient soil Zn status. The results will help farmers develop more targeted fertilisation strategies and improve the efficiency of Zn fertiliser use to ensure maximum yield and higher nutritional quality of the harvestable crop

A short interview with Cheah Zhong Xiang about his research has been recorded.

The other Runner up in 2019 was Renske Hijbeek, of Wageningen University and Research, Netherlands. Her project investigated whether increasing soil organic matter always improves soil fertility and benefits crop yields, and if general targets should be set for all agricultural soils or if targets should be specified per soil type. Her research addressed this knowledge gap by analysing long-term experiments and farmers’ perceptions in Europe. It showed that benefits of soil organic matter for soil fertility cannot be taken for granted in all soils and depend on climate, soil texture and slope, by combining the use of both experimental and farm survey data

A short interview with Renske about her research has been recorded.